Knowing your ideal customer and competitive advantage allows you to focus your message really clearly, bringing out the specific benefits that touch a nerve with your potential client compelling them to do business with you. Within the niche you have identified, you may also have sub-groups that you can address with a message very specific to them.

For example, if your niche is offering websites to businesses in the county where you live – the offering to a start up business and an established business would be different; as the needs of each would vary. Therefore the benefits would need to align with the specific requirement for each of those distinct types of prospect in the approach you take to acquire them as a client through the marketing message you use.

Once you have established your target audience for what you have to offer, what makes you better than your competitors; what distinguishes your business from the competition and would have a prospect choose you as opposed to one of your rivals? What pain are you easing or need are you fulfilling and what are the benefits of doing business with you over an alternative supplier? You need to stand out from the crowd and not appear the same (or a commodity) to your potential customer base.

Imagine if you were a shop on the High Street and a competitor opened up next door, what would you do to encourage people to come into your shop and not theirs; or if you took the ‘header’ off your website and swapped it with the ‘header’ of your nearest competitor’s website, would there be any significant difference? Better still, if you can become the recognised expert or specialist in your line of business this will significantly enhance your position versus the competition.

Identify who your ideal customer is. Rather than trying to be all things to all people, be specific about who you would want as a client. Look at who your best customers are now (and your worst) and aim to get more of the best (and much less of the worst!).

Your niche could be defined by:

turnover

number of staff

geography

industry sector

sex, age or ethnicity

hobby/interest

position within a company

etc

…or more than likely a combination of these factors.

How many new customers do you actually need? It is easier to target a prospect list with a 1000 names on it versus tens or hundreds of thousands. The more specific you are, the better you can position your offering and make it appeal to a niche audience.

There are undoubtedly 101 ways UK small businesses can save energy and lower their costs. But just how significant would it be if SMEs increased their energy efficiency?

According to the Carbon Trust, UK SMEs account for 45 per cent of business energy usage and, says Harry Morrison, general manager of the Carbon Trust Standard Company, UK SMEs have the greatest potential for savings on energy: 20 per cent compared to eight per cent for larger organisations.

“That means that when added together, the potential for savings by SMEs could be up to £1.1 billion,” says Morrison.

The truth about UK small business energy consumption

The bad news, however, is that the big majority of UK small businesses are missing out on savings because they are not aware of energy efficiency solutions that can save them money and lower their environmental impact. Perhaps because engineering companies devising energy saving solutions for the workplace are not good at communicating with small business.

Implementing social media into daily customer interactions has helped small businesses see a surge in effectiveness for interacting with customers

As the use of social media across businesses is gradually being adopted SME’s have seen an increase in the effectiveness of social media to help market their business.

According to a 2011 study of nearly 2,000 businesses by Constant Contact, an online marketing company for SMEs, results showed that companies had increased opinion that using social media was easy and not time consuming.

The study saw an increase of 24% of businesses reporting social media was easy to navigate and a 45% increase of businesses saying it worked well with customers. In the survey of UK and US businesses, 81% reported that they dedicate a significant amount of time to social media, which is up 8% from last year.

Cash is king in any business – being on top of what money is coming in and what money is going out and when is essential.

As they say, “every little helps”, so here are 10 tips to help you manage your cash more effectively:

1. Plan the cash flow year – If the business experiences peaks and troughs in demand, prepare for these and put in place measures to ensure the cash flow reflects the changes.

2. Don’t bulk buy – hold as little stock as possible and turn it over quickly. Agree with suppliers a right of return of unsold stock. Look at getting ‘stock on consignment’ (you do not pay before it is sold). Can suppliers deliver to customers on the company’s behalf? Careful planning should eliminate this potential drain on cash.

3. Keep costs down – Review all cost items (including products and energy) and relate this to efficiency. Turning off one PC overnight can save over £50 a year.

4. Run a credit check on customers and potential customers – look at the credit histories with a view to eliminating late or non-payment. Try to instil in staff the thought that ‘a sale is only valid when the cash is in the bank’. Before accepting an order ensure the customer/potential customer accepts the payment terms – in writing. It is also essential to enforce payment terms and if a customer doesn’t pay, put them on a stop.

5. Invoice promptly – issue them as soon as is practical. Soon after they are issued contact the customer by phone or email ensuring they have the invoice in their system and that they have no problems with the supply – record this. Get them used to paying on time. Remember “a sale is only valid…”

6. Ensure that systems advise you of late customer payments – keep an eye on debtors’ days (trade debtors’ ÷ sales for the previous 12 months) × 365). An increase could indicate a credit control issue.

7. Take precautions – consider taking out insurance to cover all trading with a large or doubtful customers or even against individual invoices.

8. Negotiate or re-negotiate credit terms with suppliers – Ask for early settlement discounts (if cash is available) and try to split annual costs into monthly payments. This will probably be easier than paying a large bill at the end of the year. Consider what would happen to the business if a supplier failed? Too much reliance on any one supplier could leave the company extremely vulnerable. Use credit checks and find alternate source(s).

9. Review wages and salaries – In times where cash is tight, these (usually) monthly payments are strain on cashflow.

10. Consider invoice finance – These facilities can bring in a value of up to 90 per cent issued invoices – but it has a cost. It can assist as the cashflow income then grows in line with sales, and bridges the gap between issuing an invoice and receiving payment.

With regard to the article below – is this really the best use of funding for SMEs?

The first question that it begs is, “How do you train experience?”. And, why would experienced business advisors want to give away their services for free? There is the old adage that you actually get what you pay for in terms of value.

A recent comment by UK Business Advisors questioned the effectiveness of these mentors as, due to liability issues for poor advice, the individuals are actually unable to provide any to the business they are supposedly mentoring – crazy!!

Grant of £1.2 million to provide experienced advisers for businesses

Funding to recruit and train an additional 10,000 business mentors has been announced by the government today.

A new grant of £1.2 million will be made available to the ‘Get Mentoring’ scheme from the Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative so it can enlist 10,000 business volunteers from SMEs, the Department of Business Innovation and Skills has confirmed.

This latest move comes in addition to the funding announcement for 5,000 mentors to support female entrepreneurs earlier this month, and will add to the 11,000 business mentors already available through the website mentorsme.co.uk.